Litany of Hope
A Litany of Hope to balance the Litany of Pain posted earlier. (See note below.)
May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
be blessed!
He is the compassionate Father and God
of all comfort.
God of all sufficient grace,
please, hear me.
Immanuel, God ever and always with us,
please, be with me.
God of all hope and comfort,
please, give me peace.
Lord, please forgive and take away:
my sense of entitlement,
my expectations and bitterness,
my ingratitude for your blessings.
Lord, help me release to you, in faith:
the plans I had for life,
my hopes and dreams,
all that I have lost.
Lord, help me believe and accept:
you are present when I’m in pain,
your grace is always enough, sufficient
your power works best through weakness.
Lord, help me to fix:
my eyes on things unseen, not seen,
my hope on your work, not my own,
my heart on your blessings.
And so by your grace may I find:
peace in the midst of pain,
strength in the midst of weakness,
joy in the midst of hardship.
--Amen
We have this treasure in clay pots
so that the awesome power belongs to God
and doesn’t come from us.
We are experiencing all kinds of trouble,
but aren’t crushed.
We are confused,
but we aren’t depressed.
We are harassed,
but we aren’t abandoned.
We are knocked down,
but we aren’t knocked out.
We always carry Jesus’ death around in our bodies
so that Jesus’ life can also be seen
in our bodies.
We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
will also raise us with Jesus,
and he will bring us into his presence.
But even if our bodies are breaking down
on the outside,
the person we are on the inside is being
renewed every day.
Our temporary minor problems are producing
an eternal stockpile of glory for us that
is beyond all comparison.
We don’t focus on the things that can be seen,
but on the things that can’t be seen.
The things that can be seen don’t last,
but the things that can’t be seen are eternal.
We know that if the tent that we live in on earth
is torn down,
we have a building from God.
It’s a house that isn’t handmade, which is eternal
and located in heaven.
We groan while we live in this residence
because we are weighed down.
We want to be dressed not undressed,
so that what is dying may be swallowed up
by life.
Now the one who prepared us for this very thing
is God,
and God gave us the Spirit as a down payment
for our home.
So we are always confident.
We live by faith and not by sight.
- Selections from 2 Corinthians 4-5 (Common English Bible)
Thanks to Curt Niccum, Craig Churchill, and Doug Foster for reading and offering their suggestions to this prayer. If you have suggestions, I urge you to post them as comments.
Limited permission is granted for reuse of this prayer in worship or other venues. If printed in any form attribution must be given as "Glenn Pemberton, mosaicsite.org/glennpemberton." Special permission is required to print three or more of these prayers at one time in any form, print, electronic, etc., and must be secured by request at gdp05b@acu.edu.
